Los Angeles Theatres: Princess / Wonderland Theatre

2939 Ocean Front Promenade Ocean Park (Santa Monica), CA 90405 | map - approximate |

Opening: It was running in 1913 as the Princess Theatre in a new building on the east side of the Promenade, just north of Pier Ave. Everything in the business district had burned in the September 3, 1912 pier fire. There's no listing for the Princess in the 1912 Santa Monica city directory (compiled before the fire) but the 1913 directory has it with a 2941 Ocean Front Promenade address and Charles P. McConnell listed as manager.

In this c.1913 card we're looking south toward Pier Ave. with the arched entrance of the theatre seen in the end bay of the first building on the left. Their signage, just beyond that of the Normandie Hotel, appears to say something like "10 cents - Moving Pictures - 10 cents." The last building in the next block on the left housed the La Petite Theatre, down at Marine Ave. Beyond, we get a view of the Moorish domes of the Ocean Park Bathhouse. This copy of the card that was for sale on eBay had a 1915 postmark.

A detail from the c.1913 card.

The Santa Monica Outlook for April 1, 1913 also noted that Mr. C.P. O'Connell was manager. The Princess Theatre was participating, along with the Rosemary and the Brooks Theatre, in a benefit for flood victims. The Outlook listed the address as "Ocean Front and Pier Ave."

It was running c.1916 as the Wonderland Theatre. Joe Vogel found the Wonderland in the 1915-1916 Santa Monica city directory with an address of 2939 Ocean Front Promenade. George Whitehead was listed as the proprietor at the time.

Closing: Presumably sometime before 1918. The space was then occupied by other tenants.

There's no indication of any use of the building as a theatre in this detail from image 28 from the 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map that's in the Library of Congress collection. That's Pier Ave. on the bottom of the image, Kinney St. is the next block to the north. The theatre's address, 2939 is circled in blue. The building stretched north also using addresses 2937, 2935 and 2933.

Status: The building wasn't affected by the big fire in 1924 that mostly caused damage to the piers and the beach side of the Promenade. There was, of course, an immediate flurry of rebuilding on that side of the Promenade. Some of what was still here in the 50s was revamped into Pacific Ocean Park which opened in 1958 and closed in 1967.

Everything in this neighborhood has been demolished. Pier Ave. no longer goes through to the beach. And it's now sand where the Promenade once was. The winding path now along the beach is termed Ocean Front Walk.

c.1913 - The Princess was in that white two-story building on the left side of this card, down a block and just beyond the dark brown gabled building at Pier Ave. In the foreground in the white building on the northeast corner of Ocean Front Promenade and Marine St. was the third location of the La Petite Theatre. It's a card from the author's collection.

1922 - A look south across Kinney St. The building on the left with "FOTOS 2931" on the side is the one that once had the Princess/Wonderland as a tenant. It's a Los Angeles Public Library photo.

c.1935 - The long two-story whitish building on the left once housed the Princess/Wonderland Theatre. We're looking south with Pier Ave. just beyond that building with the gabled roofline. This lovely photo by William McCarthy is in the collection of the California State Archives. The entrance to the pier and the Dome Theatre are on the right.

1936 - A fine corner view from the Santa Monica History Museum collection. The Wonderland Theatre had once been in the bay closest to us of the white building on the left. Pier Ave. is on the right side of the image. This appeared as a post on the SMHM Facebook page.

Los Angeles Theatres

Princess / Wonderland Theatre

No comments:

Post a Comment